The Golden Eagles set out on the road for a Thursday/Sunday combination in search of their first win of the 2024 season.
I’d imagine Chris Allen isn’t particularly thrilled with the first weekend of his time as Marquette women’s soccer head coach.
Across almost 180 minutes of action, his team got outscored 4-0 and outshot 24-17. I say “almost” 180 minutes, because a last second Alexa Maletis corner kick turned into a last second Kate Gibson goal against Kansas City in the Valley on Sunday. That’s the only thing stopping Marquette from being 0-2-0 right now instead of 0-1-1.
But it’s a growing process, right? It’s Allen’s first time as a collegiate head coach, he’s finding out what he has and what works and what doesn’t, and as Mike Tyson loved to say, everyone has a plan until they get hit in the face. Heck, we can even argue that Allen isn’t starting this season with the team he expected to be putting out on the field. Maggie Starker is out for extended time due to injury to start the 2024 campaign, and that big ol’ hip to ankle brace on Molly Keiper sure looks like the Whitefish Bay native won’t be playing all that much for Marquette after playing in all 19 contests a year ago.
So Allen has to adjust. He already made some adjustments, as his first 11 against Colorado wasn’t the same 11 that he sent out to start against Kansas City. What changes are coming next? We’ll have to wait and see for certain, but I’d imagine that one of the things he’d like to snap his fingers and fix is Marquette’s shots on goal rate. MU’s nine shots per game through two contests is an improvement on last season, so that’s great…. but even last year, when the Golden Eagles struggled to put the ball in the net, they still put over 43% of their shots on frame. So far through 180 minutes this year? Just 4 of the 18 attempts, which is just over 22%. That has to get better. It’s early, so it can, but MU has to find the coherence on the field to make it happen.
Match #3: at Northwestern Wildcats (1-1-0)
Date: Thursday, August 22, 2024
Time: 4pm Central
Location: Northwestern Medicine Field, Evanston, Illinois
Streaming: B1G+, which will cost you $13 for a month
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Marquette is 6-4-2 all time against Northwestern. This series used to be heavily tilted towards the Golden Eagles after they picked up their fifth straight win against the Wildcats in 2012. However, Northwestern has taken each of the last three encounters, all by shutout, including last year’s 4-0 match in Milwaukee.
Northwestern started off their season with a pair of road matches after being picked to finish 12th in the 18 team Big Ten, and please take a moment to let that last part sink in and laugh at it. Last Thursday, they were up in Boston and came away with a 3-2 win over Boston University in the season opener. They had to hold off BU to a certain degree, as NU was up 3-0 after 33 minutes but let in two goals on three second half shots, with the second coming in the 77th minute. Shots were 15-5 for the Wildcats, but Northwestern keeper Reiley Fitzpatrick had to make a save in the final minute to prevent a tie.
In their other match of the weekend, they were in Charlottesville to face a Virginia team earning preseason top 25 votes. Shots were pretty even the whole way through, but the Cavaliers scored twice, once early in the first half and once right before intermission, to hand Northwestern a loss.
Thanks to the tallies from that first match, Kennedy Roesch is your NU scoring leader right now. She had a goal against BU and assisted on another, so she’s the only player with an assist on the season so far. Josie Aulicino will be heard from eventually this season, as she had six goals and seven assists last season to make her Northwestern’s leading returning scorer from 2023.
The aforementioned Reiley Fitzpatrick played all but 30 minutes for Northwestern a year ago, so there’s no reason to think she’ll do anything but the same again this year. Things are a little rough for her after allowing two goals in each of NU’s first two matches, but the junior from Virginia has a career goals-against average of 1.11 and a career save percentage of .659. That feels like Marquette can find a way to put shots past her, but MU is also going to have to be better than they were last weekend to do it.
Match #4: at Western Michigan Broncos (1-0-0)
Date: Sunday, August 25, 2024
Time: Noon Central
Location: WMU Soccer Complex, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Streaming: Free on WMUBroncos.com
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteWSOC
Marquette is 4-1-0 all time against Western Michigan, including wins in Milwaukee in each of the past two years. This will be the first time that MU has gone to Kalamazoo since the first ever meeting back in 2009. WMU’s only win in the series came in Milwaukee in the first round of the 2013 NCAA tournament.
Western Michigan will provide a quality litmus test for Marquette as the fourth match of the season. The Golden Eagles will have gotten 270 minutes of field time in Chris Allen’s system under their belts when they head in to face the preseason favorites in the MAC. WMU picked up eight of the 12 first place votes in the preseason poll, and six of the head coaches in the league also picked the Broncos to win the MAC tournament at the end of the regular season. None of this is surprising, as Western Michigan won the league last season and didn’t lose a single contest on their way……. until they fell in the conference tournament, and then missed the NCAA tournament as a result. I wonder if they have some frustrations to work out about that?
It’s definitely possible, as they outshot Northern Kentucky — and this is not a joke — Thirty-One to 10 in their opener on their way to a 3-0 victory. The Broncos scored what would be the game winner in the 26th minute and then tacked on twice in the second half to make sure their point was getting across.
Jen Blitchok scored both of WMU’s second half goals to make herself the leading scorer on the squad right now. Abby Werthman scored the first goal of the match and then assisted on one from Blitchok to make her the only Bronco with a goal and an assist for the moment. Blitchok led the team in scoring last year with nine goals and six assists, while Werthman came in third with 15 points on five each in goals and assists. #2 scorer last season Jenna Blackburn is still on this roster this fall, and she assisted on Werthman’s game-winner.
We’ll have to see what happens with Western Michigan’s goaltending situation. Lauren Boafo played every minute a year ago and was named MAC Keeper of the Year, and she’s on the roster this fall….. but it was Ava Wilberding in net against NKU. Wilberding redshirted in 2023 after transferring from Northern Michigan, so this may be a situation where head coach Lewis Robinson said “hey, I want to get her minutes, and we should be heavily favored against NKU” and gave Wilberding the start. If Wilberding goes against Iowa on Thursday, then I’d imagine Marquette will see her on Sunday as well.